In a landmark move set to transform international payments across Africa, Flutterwave, the continent’s largest payments platform, has teamed up with Polygon Labs to make Polygon PoS the backbone of its new cross-border payment solution. This partnership promises faster, cheaper, and more efficient transactions for businesses and individuals alike.
Flutterwave, which has processed over $40 billion in transactions to date, will begin a phased rollout of Polygon’s blockchain, starting with a pilot program for select Flutterwave for Business clients in 2025. By 2026, the solution will be available to all Flutterwave for Business users and Send App customers, significantly enhancing remittances and simplifying cross-border payments.
The collaboration allows Flutterwave to tap into Polygon’s high-performance blockchain infrastructure, enabling global businesses including giants like Uber and Audiomack to make cross-border transactions in seconds instead of days, while cutting transaction costs to just pennies.
“Slow and costly cross-border payments are a major revenue drain for African businesses,” said Marc Boiron, CEO of Polygon Labs. “With stablecoins on Polygon, settlement times can move from days to seconds, and fees are drastically reduced. This is a clear vote of confidence in stablecoins as the future of global payments.”
The initial phase of the partnership will focus on enterprise clients, allowing large corporations to use stablecoins for faster, more cost-efficient payment flows. After this, the service will expand to consumer remittances via Flutterwave’s Send App, bringing affordable, instant cross-border payments to millions of individuals.
“Businesses in emerging economies process billions in cross-border transactions every year, yet they continue to face high fees and slow settlements,” said Olugbenga “GB” Agboola, CEO and Founder of Flutterwave. “By partnering with Polygon, we’re introducing a solution that’s often cheaper and faster than local payments, unlocking new economic opportunities across Africa.”
The partnership addresses major pain points in the $2 trillion global cross-border payment market, where remittance fees in emerging markets often exceed 8%. With Polygon’s sub-$0.01 transaction fees and near-instant settlements, Flutterwave users can now enjoy a dramatically improved payment experience.
Operating in more than 30 African countries and supporting over 150 currencies, Flutterwave is showing how blockchain technology can overcome the limitations of traditional banking systems and scale solutions for fast-growing digital economies.
Polygon enters the partnership amid a series of institutional milestones. These include handling half of all USDC transfers between $100 and $1,000 in the U.S., powering BlackRock’s BUIDL Fund tokenization via Securitize with over $1 billion in assets under management, and supporting Polymarket, which has processed $1.1 billion in cumulative volume and recently secured a $2 billion investment from Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), reflecting a valuation of roughly $8 billion pre-investment.
Together, Flutterwave and Polygon are setting a new global standard for how blockchain can solve real-world payment challenges, offering businesses and consumers a faster, more affordable, and more accessible way to send money across borders.